1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel N-substituted glutamic acid derivative, and a process for the production and use thereof. The derivative exhibits a strong herbicidal activity, and is useful as an active ingredient for various kinds of agricultural chemicals.
2. Description of the Related Art
A series of phenoxy compounds including 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid, and the like have been used as herbicides important for agriculture and gardening. Novel, L., French Pat. No. 1,544,786, discloses p-halogeno-phenoxyacetic acid compounds. The biological actions of these phenoxy herbicides mainly rely on the destruction in vivo of the auxin balance, which provides a disturbance of the fundamental physiological actions in a plant, including abnormal cell division, abnormal morphology, inhibition of chlorophyll formation, and abnormal cell walls resulting in a rise of the osmotic pressure. Since the auxin hormone type herbicides can be applied to soil as well as the stem and leaves of a plant, and transported within a plant, such herbicides exhibit a herbicidal action on perennial weeds in, for example, a rice field, on which other types of herbicides have no herbicidal action. Moreover, the auxin hormone type herbicides strongly inhibit regeneration of the treated weeds.
Such phenoxy type herbicides, however, can provide undesirable side effects on important crops such as rice, wheat, barley, and the like, and are not effective on some perennial weeds, and therefore, are used only for limited applications and by limited methods.